


rekha

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Ramayana fics [19]
Category: Ramayana - Valmiki
Genre: Angst, Brother-Brother Relationships, Canon Compliant, Fear, Gen, Missing Scene, Oneshot, minor physical violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 18:31:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17048384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: It’s just -- sometimes Lakshman wishes he were not quite so wedded to duty.rekha (Hindi): bound, limit





	rekha

“I told you to stay with her!”

“She was afraid for you.”

“You left her alone and she -- is -- _gone_.”

Bhaiyya is striding up and down the porch, exactly as Bhabi did not an hour earlier, and Lakshman has to close his eyes briefly. “Ten years learning at the _gurukulam_ , fourteen years fighting demons in the forest, a lifetime of knowing the strength of my arrows, and you toss it all aside because of a woman’s worry. What could Sita have said that vexed you so, to leave her behind and to ignore every instinct you have?”

Duty. Shame. Guilt. Anger. Any of those are correct, and Lakshman knows all of them are the wrong thing to say.

_You desire me. You want to possess me, and so you followed us into the forest when no one asked you to come and waited for the right moment to make your move. Go and protect your brother, if you care for him at all._

Those words still curdle in his gut, and he will not have them curdle in Bhaiyya’s, nor Bhabi’s.

“It was a trick. A ruse designed to play on all of our instincts. We must counter whoever set it into motion, and beat them at their own game, if we are to find Bhabi.” Lakshman says instead. The best way to calm down someone in a rage, Bhaiyya always says, is to focus on the future, not the past.

Bhaiyya seems not to hear a word. “I _told_ you to stay with her. I trusted you with her.” He is glaring, breathing hard, his pupils darting around the empty hut and then back to his brother.

“Bhaiyya,” Lakshman says slowly, evenly. “We must start looking for her. You will not find your wife if --”

Pain explodes in his left temple, and belatedly he realizes Bhaiyya has struck him across the head with his bow. Jagged lines run up and down his vision, and his eldest brother repeats himself, still stuck on that nugget of information. “My wife is missing. You left her alone and defenseless, and I don’t know where my wife is!”

“ _I_ left behind my own wife to protect you,” Lakshman cries out finally, his voice breaking. The blow is fading from his vision, only to be replaced by tears. “I have been separated from her for thirteen years, and you from your wife for a matter of minutes!”

“Urmila sleeps in Ayodhya under a goddess’s blessing, while Sita has been snatched from us by a demon’s manipulation.” Bhaiyya looks at the thicket of trees surrounding their home, with an intensity that would rend the land from coast to coast if he so wished it. “ _Where is she?”_

The white-hot agony of Lakshman’s temple has dulled into a headache, and he presses cold, numb fingers to it. Grief and fear make even the best of people say things they don’t mean, and later they regret them and make amends for it. It is the duty of those who love them to understand that, and forgive them.

It’s just -- sometimes Lakshman wishes he were not quite so wedded to duty.


End file.
